The College Years
by amyyrileyy
Summary: AU. Morgan, Prentiss, JJ, and Reid in college together.
1. Chapter 1

Okay, so this is my first attempt at a Criminal Minds fanfic. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Also, I refuse to accept that JJ is gone. I won't write anything without her in it. And I'm a Derek/JJ fan, even though it seems that we're in the minority here.

Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds or any of its' characters.

* * *

Chapter 1

"Alright, that's the last of it." Jennifer Jareau, or JJ, sighed as she dropped another tote on the floor of her dorm room at the University of Pittsburgh.

"We just got invited to a party tonight." Her roommate and friend, Emily Prentiss, told her, holding up a flyer as she unpacked her books onto her desk.

"Really? Where?"

"Right on the outskirts of campus. Some freshman has an apartment." She replied.

JJ nodded. "Sounds good."

"Knock knock." A deep voice interrupted.

JJ and Emily looked up to find two guys in the doorway, one tall and scrawny with shaggy hair and glasses; the other a little bit shorter, very built, and grinning.

"Well, hello, ladies. We're your neighbors from across the hall. I'm Derek and this here is Spencer."

"I'm Emily and that's JJ." She gestured to her roommate who smiled in response.

"Hey."

"What brings you to this lovely university?" Derek asked, while Spencer stayed quiet.

"Soccer." JJ shrugged.

"Psychology." Emily replied. "And softball."

"Got'cha. Well, we'll leave you to your unpacking. It was nice to meet you and we'll be across the hall if you need anything. Emily." Derek said, still grinning. "JJ." He gave a quick nod and cheeky wink before heading back into the hallway. "C'mon, Spence. Let's go."

"Uh, oh, well, bye." Spencer stuttered, finally speaking for the first time.

"It was nice to meet you, Spencer." Emily smiled at his obvious nervousness.

"You- you, too." He nodded awkwardly and followed Derek down the hall.

"Derek was totally checking you out." Emily said after a minute of silence.

"What? No way!" JJ denied.

"C'mon, JJ, it's time to break out of your shell."

"Shell?"

"You know what I'm talking about." Emily smirked. "C'mon, let's go get dinner before we get ready."

JJ nodded. "What sport do you think Spencer plays?" She asked, since today was move-in day for the athletes. Regular freshmen weren't until the following day.

"He doesn't look like an athlete at all. Maybe golf?" Emily replied.

"It's possible. Derek must play football."

"What about basketball?"

"Nobody comes here to play basketball, Em. Haven't you talked to anyone?" JJ laughed.

"I guess." She shrugged, opening the door to the campus center.

* * *

Almost two hours later, JJ was pulling a sweater over her head, while Emily was in the shower.

"Knock knock. Hey, JJ."

JJ looked up and was surprised to see Derek Morgan standing in the doorway. "Hey, Derek." She smiled. "What's up?"

"What are you up to tonight?"

"Um, Em and I are going to some party right off campus."

"Oh, really? I guess I'll be seeing you there then."

JJ nodded. "Oh hey, gotta question. What team are you on?"

Derek chuckled. "Football, but I've been thinking of doing some intramural basketball. You said you were here for soccer?"

"Yeah. And Em's here for softball."

"She looks like the softball type." Derek nodded.

"There's a type?" Emily's voice interrupted as she appeared behind him. "News to me. JJ, you are _not_ wearing that top."

"What? I like this sweater!"

"I do, too. On my sixteen year old sister." She stated.

Derek chuckled again. "I'll leave you to your business. I'll see you later tonight."

As soon as he was gone from the doorway, Emily shut the door and practically attacked her roommate.

"One, take that sweater off. And two, what were you guys talking about?"

"I like this sweater." JJ refused, and totally ignored the other half of the question.

"JJ. Do not make me come over there." Emily threatened as she dug through her closet.

"Emily."

Emily sighed and turned around. Clad in a pair of sweatpants and a tank top, hair a total disaster, she glared at JJ for a second before shrugging. "You asked for it." She stated before jumping across her bed to get to JJ's side and tackled her onto the other bed.

"Emily!" JJ shrieked and tried to dive away but she wasn't fast enough.

"Take the sweater off!" Emily laughed. "You're in college now, JJ, not high school." She grinned when she successfully pinned her friend down.

"There's nothing wrong with how I was in high school." JJ pouted, giving up on trying to get away. "I had friends, I was popular, you know that, Em."

"I know. But now we're going to take this campus by storm. We'll be the two most popular and well-known freshmen ever." Emily smirked. "Now, sweater off. I know you brought better party clothes."

And as usual, Emily was right. Sure, JJ had been rather popular and outgoing in their high school but not like Em. Emily was definitely a wild child while JJ was more calm and reserved. Her parents had been strict with her, especially after what happened with her sister. When they agreed on this college, Emily had vowed to get her out there and she wasn't going back on her word now. Especially with Derek's obvious interested in JJ.

So involved in her thoughts, Emily hadn't even see or heard JJ changing clothes until she said something.

"How's this?" JJ sighed.

"Perfect! Thank you!" Emily squealed when she saw JJ's outfit, which consisted of a short denim skirt and a black V-neck tank top. Derek's not going to be able to take his ever off you."

"Em! I told you. Nothing's going to happen. I'm so not his type. Besides, it's only the first day here. What if he finds someone who moves in tomorrow or someone in his class? We don't even know each other."

"I know, JJ, I know. But he's interested in you. I can tell. Just talk to him. Please?"

JJ sighed. "Fine. I'll talk to him. But don't get your hopes up."

"I won't." Emily responded quickly.

"And hey, I didn't tell you I was interested. What if I'm not?"

"You are. Trust me. I know you better than you know yourself, JJ." She reminded her.

* * *

Remember, this is the first CM fic I've written. So definitely let me know what you think! Thanks!


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks for all the reviews! Sorry, I took so long. I work 40 hours and I'm taking 6 college courses right now, so life's pretty hectic. I'm not really sure where I'm going with this story; I have an idea or two, but that's it. So, it might be all over the place. I'm totally open to hearing any ideas that you guys think of though!

Disclaimer: Don't own anythingg!

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Chapter Two

"So who's apartment is this?" JJ asked as they walked up the front steps.

"Lauren Silva. She's on the softball team with me." Emily replied. "Guess her parents pay for it."

"Oh. Must be nice."

"Yeah." They laughed, climbing the three flights of stairs to the top apartment.

Emily pushed the door open and was instantly bombarded with the sound of hiphop and loud people.

"Hey, Emily!" A tall blonde girl clad in all Abercrombie clothes approached her.

"Hey, Lauren. Nice place."

"Thanks. Who's your friend?"

"This is JJ. We were to high school together." Emily replied.

"Cool. You play softball?"

"Uh, no, actually, soccer."

"That's cool. Nice to meet you. There are drinks in the kitchen. Help yourself. I gotta go make sure no one's dying or anything." She laughed before heading off towards the other room.

"She's nice…" JJ said as they stood in the doorway.

"Oh, yeah." Emily nodded. "Let's get a drink."

"Yes, please." JJ sighed and followed Emily through the massive crowd of already drunken teenagers.

An hour and a half later and working on their third beer, Emily and JJ were laughing hysterically at some basketball players dancing.

"Oh, c'mon, ladies. You know you like it." One of the kids tried not to laugh as he continued dancing ridiculously.

"You caught us, Erik. We're just jealous that we can't dance like you." Emily jokingly replied through the laughter.

"Well, hello there, pretty girl." A new voice came from behind JJ, causing her to stop laughing and turn around.

"Doug, what are you doing here?" JJ asked, instantly cringing at the thought of seeing her ex-boyfriend. She glanced over her shoulder to see Emily dancing closely with Erik.

"I heard there was a party and knew Emily would drag you out here." He explained, stepping closer.

JJ took a step back, wishing Emily would notice but knew she wouldn't. "You don't go to school here."

"JJ, it's the local state college. You're not as far from home as you think." He smirked and took another step closer.

"You followed me?" She asked incredulously, taking another step back but moved towards Emily this time.

"Already stumbling, JJ? How many drinks have you had? Can't even walk straight. Maybe I should take you back to your room." He shrugged, ignoring her question and talking a third step towards her.

Hoping she was close enough, she took another step backwards and thankfully bumped right into someone's back. She glanced over her shoulder, and mumbled, "Sorry", when she realized it was indeed Emily.

Not even looking up, Emily just raised a hand to wave it off.

"C'mon, JJ. You're drunk." Doug nodded towards the front door and grabbed her upper arm.

"No, I'm fine, _Doug_." She told him, emphasizing his name.

And that's all it took. Emily spun on her heel and glared at Doug. "Get your hands off her. Now." She ordered.

"I'm just trying to help her, Em. She's drunk." He told her.

"She is not drunk. Now. Get. Your. Hands. Off. Her. Doug." Emily repeated.

"She needs to go home. We wouldn't want anything to happen to her because you're both to intoxicated to get there safely."

JJ was starting to feel lightheaded at this point and struggled to pull her arm free.

"Oh, and you would know all about those situation, wouldn't you?" Emily spat.

"Well, duh. Everyone knows. They it in practically every class in high school." He smirked back.

"Let her go, Doug." She glanced at JJ, who was wincing in pain at the obvious grip he had on her arm.

"Hey, what's going on here?" Another voice joined the group.

JJ looked up and a rush of relief flooded through her at the sight of Derek and Spencer.

"Nothing, man. I'm just escorting my girl back to her room." Doug replied casually.

"No disrespect, man, but she doesn't look like she wants to go with you." Derek said calmly.

"Yeah, well, you know girls." Doug chuckled. "She's drunk and doesn't know what's best for her."

"I'm not drunk." JJ stated quietly. "And I'm not your girl, Doug."

"Shut up, JJ!" He snapped finally. "We're leaving!"

"Doug, you take one more step and I'll call the police." Emily threatened, reaching for her phone.

"And get everyone in here in trouble? You wouldn't, Emily. You value your reputation too much."

"Not over my best friend. You know that. I did it once, I'll do it again."

"C'mon man, let her go." Derek tried to persuade him. "We don't want this getting out of hand."

"And it won't. If you just let me by, we'll all be fine."

"Doug, I swear to God -." Emily was cut off by the sound of Derek's fist colliding with the side of Doug's face, knocking both him and JJ to the ground.

"You asshole!" Doug cried, causing people to finally look up.

"Now, I suggest you leave before I do it again." Derek all but growled at him, watching him scramble for the back door. "You alright, JJ?"He asked as he turned around. Emily had pulled JJ to her feet and into her arms behind him.

JJ nodded. "Y-yeah, thanks, Derek."

Emily smiled weakly at Derek in appreciation before focusing back on JJ. "C'mon, let's go back to the room."

"Hey, I'll walk you." Derek volunteered as they turned towards the front of the house.

"It's okay, Derek. I'm fine. Stay, enjoy the party." JJ told him. "I'll see you around."

Derek frowned as they left the room.

"Why didn't you go with them?" Spencer finally spoke up.

"I'm not sure." Derek replied quietly. "I think… we should give them some space."

"You alright, JJ?" Emily asked after a few minutes of walking in silence.

"Yeah, just… annoyed. I can't believe he showed up. It's been months."

"Do you wanna do something about it? We can call the police or go to the hospital and…" She trailed off.

"No, I… no, what good would it do? We didn't press charges before so… no. I'll just deal with it. It's my problem." JJ replied dejectedly.

"Hey." Emily tugged on her hand that JJ was clinging to. "I told you you didn't have to deal with this alone."

"I know, Em. It's just…"

"He wants you, not me." She finished. "And I get that, I do, JJ. Just… don't forget that you have people here."

"Thanks, Em." JJ smiled weakly.

"No problem. That's what friends are for."

They continued to walk in silence the rest of the way, including the two flight climb up the stairs to their room.

"We need to do something about this room. It's too crowded." Emily decided as she stood in the middle of the floor

"Okay." JJ nodded, agreeing just for the sake of agreeing.

And with that, Emily quickly thought out a plan and they spent the next hour moving the heavy wooden furniture before collapsing on the floor.

"That was ridiculous." Emily said.

"I'm exhausted." JJ agreed.

"Me too. Let's go to bed."

They crawled into their individual beds and the room fell in silence. Well, for a few minutes, at least.

"Derek looked hot tonight." Emily stated into the dark.

"Em!" JJ sighed.

"Don't deny it."

JJ hesitated but smiled after a minute. "Yeah, he did…"

Emily would have squealed in delight at JJ's declaration, but unfortunately she was already asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks again for the reviews! My blackberry is constantly going off with emails. Here's another chapter. I'm going to attempt to get something up tomorrow but I can't make any promises.

Here's the next chapter. Hope you enjoy. Don't forget to review, good or bad!

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Chapter Three

The rest of the week went by pretty quickly. The rest of the residents had moved in without incident and the following days were spent at sports practices, hanging out on in the quad, or having movie nights.

It was the first day of class and JJ and Emily were slowly getting ready for their first 8am English class.

"8am classes should be illegal." Emily complained as they stepped out into the hallway.

"Well, maybe you shouldn't have been at Erik's 'til one in the morning." JJ pointed out.

"Shut up." She grumbled. "You're just -."

"Good morning, ladies." Derek's voice interrupted Emily.

"Ugh." Emily groaned while JJ just smiled at him.

"What's her problem?"

"She stayed out too late." JJ replied simply.

"Partying on a school night, Emily?" He faked surprise. "No way!"

"Shut up, Morgan." She snapped back. "I need coffee."

"What time is your Intro to CJ class again?" Derek ignored Emily and looked to JJ.

"10. English, Philosophy, CJ, Communications, Calculus." JJ replied.

"Oh, that's right. No Tuesday, Thursday classes for you." Derek nodded.

"Nope, just four hour soccer practices." She said. "Where's Spence?"

"His class doesn't start 'til 10. Lucky bastard already has a semester of credits under his belt so he's in practically all different classes. He's in Intro to CJ with you, though."

They had swapped schedules earlier in the week but apparently they hadn't paid as much attention as they thought.

"Right. And calculus. I remember that." JJ nodded slowly. "Em is in Philosophy, and we're all in English together."

"I thought the freshmen were mostly kept together by major." Emily squinted her eyes in the bright sunlight as they walked out of the campus center, her coffee in hand.

"Yeah, but they have to work around practices, too. Your practices are Monday and Tuesday nights. Mine are Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Didn't we go over this already?" JJ smiled.

"Yeah, well, we aren't all geniuses at 8am like you, JJ. Didn't we already go over that?" Emily smirked back at her.

"Drink your coffee. Your crankiness is giving me a migraine." She replied, taking a seat in a row on the middle left-hand side of the lecture hall; Derek and Emily on either side of her. "When's your first game?" She turned to face Derek.

"Next Friday. Where have you been?" He chuckled. "It's all around campus."

"Eh, I'm not the most observant person apparently." She shrugged.

"They're looking for someone to sing the national anthem."

"Really?" Emily perked up at his statement. "JJ -."

"No." She shook her head, know exactly what Emily was going to say.

"C'mon, JJ. You've done it before."

"Yeah, and look what happened. I got the attention of the quarterback and that obviously didn't end well." JJ frowned.

"Well, who's to say that'll happen again?"

Derek sat quietly on the other side of JJ, listening intently but trying not to be obnoxiously obvious.

"Emily, I don't want to chance it." She shrugged. "I don't want that kind of attention."

"You'd rather the attention that you're getting now?" Emily asked. "I'm not trying to pressure you but c'mon, you can't tell me that you haven't noticed it."

"You think I'm blind? Of course I've seen it." She bit her bottom lip. "I'm hoping that it'll blow over soon."

"Hey." Derek's voice quietly interrupted, causing her to turn her attention to her other side. "It will blow over, you're right. But Em's right, too. It won't blow over 'til something else happens. Make a new name for yourself so people will stop the whispers and stares. I mean, don't do it unless you want to, but make sure you look at the pros and cons."

JJ sighed and slumped down in her chair.

"Don't hate us, JJ. Pretend the whole Doug fiasco didn't happen. You love singing. Don't let him ruin it." Emily told her. "Replace the bad memories of singing with new good memories. Don't do it know, if you don't want to. But don't let him ruin it for you."

"I know." She whispered, facing Emily. "It just brings back the memories of high school."

"Alright, it's fine. We'll talk about it later, JJ." Emily nodded.

"Thanks." She forced a smile before turning back to Derek. "Sorry, Derek, I… sorry."

"It's okay, JJ. Don't worry about it."

"I just…" JJ hesitated, biting her bottom lip. "I'll explain one day."

"JJ, I mean it. It's fine." He smiled. "Now, when is your first game?"

"Tomorrow night, actually."

"Early start?" He asked.

"Well, pre-season is this week. Officially, next Thursday night is the first game." She explained.

"Hey, shush. I don't feel like getting yelled at on the first day." Emily whacked her friend's shoulder.

"You'll be asleep in five minutes anyway, Em." JJ pointed out.

"No, I won't. The goal is to actually do well now. High school was easy. This is college."

JJ and Derek had to work to hold back their laughter.

"You sound like my parents." JJ chuckled. "Seriously, Em."

"Okay, fine. I'm sure we'll be fine. But still, shush. He's talking up there. I don't want to be embarrassed."

JJ and Derek just continued to silently laugh at their friend, but did manage to pay some sorts of attention to the professor.

"Hey, Em." JJ greeted as she strolled through the door to their dorm room hours later. "How were the rest of your classes?"

"Same old first day stuff." She replied, pulling her hair back into a ponytail. "Sorry, I gotta get to practice."

JJ laughed. "That's fine. I'll see you later."

"Bye!" She called as she all but ran out of the room.

Dumping her bag on the floor, JJ collapsed onto her bed and sighed. "This is going to be a long four years."

"Talking to yourself?" Derek's voice interrupted her thoughts.

JJ glanced towards the doorway to see her neighbor standing in front of his door; backpack slung over one shoulder and key in hand.

"Well, I suppose as long as you aren't answering yourself, it can't be too bad." He continued before she could respond.

"Ha Ha." She replied sarcastically. "You done with class for the day?"

"Yeah." He dropped his bag in his room before closing his door and crossing the hall. Perching himself on the edge of her bed, he looked down at her, propped up on her elbows. "Rough day?"

"No, just… contemplating how hectic these four years are going to be, if the first day is any indicator." She sighed before flopping backwards dramatically.

"This is just the start of it. Life probably will be just as bad after we graduate." Derek pointed out.

"True. Especially with you going into law enforcement." She reminded him. "I wish I knew what I was going to do with my degree. I'd give anything to have it all figured out."

"Hey, trust me, JJ. You'll figure it out. Besides, by not having a plan, it's easier to change your mind and major."

"Yeah… I guess." She shrugged. "So, what'cha up to tonight?"

"Not much. I have another early class tomorrow, and practice afterwards."

"Fun. You know, I love soccer, but I don't think I'd be playing still if I hadn't gotten the scholarship." She admitted. "I guess I can always see that as a plus though."

Derek nodded. "I would."

JJ sighed and sat up. "I should probably get started on my reading. Philosophy is looking rough."

"Yeah. I have some intense reading for Psych already." He turned to look at JJ, eyes widening when he realized how close they were sitting.

JJ's eyes mirrored Derek's and she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, showing her obvious nervousness at the close proximity. Emily's voice was ringing in her head, and before she could comprehend what she was doing, she leaned forward and pressed her lips to Derek's.

Gasping, she pulled back after a few seconds. "Oh God, Derek… I – I'm sorry, I don't know -." Her stuttering apology was cut off when Derek captured her lips with his for a second kiss.

"Don't apologize." He whispered against her lips, before continuing.


	4. Chapter 4

Hey guys. Sorry for the wait. It's midterm week and with 5 courses having exams, it was a pretty busy time. Thanks for the reviews. They really do make my day. Here's the next chapter. Also, just an FYI, I haven't really ever written any sort of "romantic scenes" so I doubt I'll actually put one in; most likely just hints and glances.

Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds!

Thanks for reading and don't forget to let me know what you think!

* * *

Chapter Four

"Jennifer Erin Jareau!" Emily exclaimed, storming into the room the following afternoon.

JJ had just gotten back from her four house soccer practice and was currently standing in front of her bed, clad in a pair of athletic shorts and a sports bar. She turned to face her friend, eyes wide at the level of her voice and the fact that she used her full name. No one did that, except her parents. She didn't even think Emily knew her middle name.

"What's up?" JJ hesitantly asked.

"You. Derek. Spill!" she demanded. "I can't believe I had to hear about you guys through campus gossip!"

"We're not dating."

"Bullshit." Emily challenged.

"We aren't! We just… made out a bit. On my bed. Yesterday afternoon." She smiled sheepishly.

"JJ!" Emily exclaimed again.

"Em, stop yelling and I'll tell you everything." She said as she sat on her bed. "We were talking and he went to leave because we had homework to do and… I kissed him."

_(Flashback)_

_ "Don't apologize." He whispered against her lips, before continuing. He wrapped one arm around her waist and tugged her closer while he rested his other hand on her thigh._

_ "Derek…" JJ reluctantly tried to pull back. "I, I don't -."_

_ "Shh…" Derek silenced her once again and wrapped his other arm around her waist, slipping his fingertips under the bottom hem of her shirt._

_ She had no idea what came over her, maybe it was everything Emily said or maybe it was everything that happened with Doug, she couldn't know for sure, but the next thing she did know, she was straddling Derek's lap, arms around his neck, tongues dueling for dominance._

_ They continued making out for a few minutes, lost in their own world, hands roaming freely. This world was interrupted, though, when someone cat-called from the hallway._

_ JJ quickly pulled back and practically jumped off Derek's lap. She glanced over to the open door before looking back to Derek, eyes wide in fear. "Oh, God, Derek. I'm sorry. I – I don't know what came over me."_

_ Derek slowly got to his feet, not breaking eye contact, giving himself a minute to adjust before speaking. "JJ. Hey, JJ." He reached out to grasp her hands with his. "Calm down. It's alright. Talk to me."_

_ "I, I don't know. I'm not…" JJ sighed, frustrated at her inability to form a coherent sentence. "I'm not that kind of girl. I can't, I mean, one night, I could, I guess… I've never…"_

_ "Okay, okay." He squeezed her hands. "Just, take a deep breath and try again."_

_ Following his instructions, JJ closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. "I don't really know what I'm doing."_

_ "That's fine. Let's talk about that." Derek encouraged._

_ "It's only our second week here. I just, doesn't that seem fast?" She opened her eyes and glanced back up at him. "I'm not a one night stand kind of girl. At least, I don't think I am. It's never really crossed my mind before."_

_ "Wait… what are you talking about? I would never do that to you, JJ."_

_ JJ cringed when she realized what she had just implied. "No, I don't… I don't think that, Derek, I just don't know what we're doing. I think, there's potential for me to have feelings for you, but… but I don't think I know you enough to actually, actually make that decision. Do, does that make sense?"_

_ "Absolutely. JJ, in high school, I was… a player." He smirked briefly before becoming serious again. "When I got accepted to this school, I made a decision to leave that part of me behind. I'm not that person anymore. You're right, we don't know each other… and I won't lie. I feel something towards you; I'm not sure what it is just yet. Maybe we should, I don't want to say pretend this didn't happen, but maybe we should use it to our advantage?"_

_ JJ frowned in confusion. "Advantage? How?"_

_ "Let's continue getting to know each other. And next weekend, I want to take you out. On a date." He replied. "We can still do this the right way, just slightly different."_

_ JJ nodded. "I, okay. I can do that. I'd like to do that." She dropped her eyes once more briefly before glancing towards the door. "It's probably already about the building but, do you think, can we maybe keep this to ourselves?" She paused before suddenly continuing. "I mean, not because I don't want everyone to know or because I'm ashamed or because I don't think it's going to work or -." She rambled, realizing that her request may have come off wrong._

_ Derek placed a finger to her lips. "JJ. It's fine. I think that it would be best to keep it to ourselves as well." He gently pulled her into his arms and embraced her tightly. "Are you okay now?"_

_ JJ nodded into his chest. "Yes. Thank you."_

_ "Anytime." He replied, pressing his lips to the top of her head._

_(End Flashback)_

"And then he went back to his room to do his homework." JJ finished recapping the previous day for Emily, who was practically jumping up and down with excitement.

"I told you! I knew he was interested!" She squealed.

"Yeah yeah yeah." JJ laughed. "But this doesn't mean that it's going to work. We might still decide that we just want to be friends after all."

"Yeah, right. And I'm the Queen of England." Emily remarked sarcastically.

"Shut up. I need to shower. Is that allowed now?"

"Yes, yes, go." She gestured towards the door.

JJ stood and gathered her belongings before heading towards the door. Pausing in the doorway, JJ turned back to her friend. "Hey, Em? I'm sorry I didn't tell you yesterday. I just… I didn't want to chance anything."

"It's okay, JJ, I understand." Emily smiled. "Now, go. You stink."

JJ just shook her head and walked away, laughing.


	5. Chapter 5

AN: Sorry for the long wait, guys! Crazy busy with school and the Christmas season coming up at work (Walmart, yay..). Hope this holds you over til I can get the next one up. I'm already working on it, but I lost one of the pages that I wrote so I'm trying to remember what exactly was on it. Again, sorry for the wait and thank you so much for all the reviews!

Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds.

* * *

Chapter Five

The following week went by without incident. Derek and JJ had spent almost every free moment together. They had even joined Eric and Emily for a movie night in the girls' dorm room. They hadn't gone on their date and denied being together to anyone who asked but it was obvious between the looks, the gestures, and the touches that it wouldn't be much longer.

Being a football player, Derek was already pretty well known and JJ was definitely making a name for herself on the soccer field and in the classroom. Needless to say, they were making a lot of people jealous. Guys were constantly hitting on JJ and girls were basically throwing themselves at Derek. It was slightly ridiculous, in their opinions, but thankfully, they only had eyes for each other.

"Emily!" JJ sighed frustratedly. She threw another article of clothing on the floor of their dorm room. It was about an hour before Derek had said he'd come get her for their date.

"Come here." Emily gestured her over. "Sit." She pointed to her desk chair. "You need to calm down." She continued after JJ took the seat. "It's just Derek taking you to dinner and a movie, or something equally as cheesy. He wouldn't care if you showed up in your pajamas."

"But-."

"No, no buts. Dry your hair and get out of those sweats. I'll find you something to wear."

JJ nodded. "Thank you, Em." She inhaled deeply before continuing. "I'm just nervous. The last date I went on was with Doug. What if I panic? Or, or I'm not ready? I mean, Derek doesn't know my past."

"It's fine, JJ. If you're uncomfortable at any time, just tell him. I'm sure he'll understand. And if he doesn't, I'll beat his ass." Emily reassured her with a grin. "Now dry you hair before it does something funky that I can't fix."

Forty-five minutes later, JJ was dressed in a pair of tight dark blue, low-rise jeans, a black off-the-shoulder shirt and her favorite pair of red heels. Emily was currently putting the finishing touches on curling her hair, while JJ applied the tiniest amount of makeup.

"All done." Emily stated, pulling the curling iron from the wall and setting it down on her desk.

"Thanks, Em." JJ smiled. "Are you staying in tonight?"

"Yeah, I'm actually going to hang out with Spencer." She replied.

"Spencer?" JJ repeated, slightly surprised.

"Um, yeah. He asked if I wanted to get some ice cream tonight." She smiled. "For good luck before my volleyball game tomorrow." Emily had decided to join in the intramural volleyball team while waiting for softball season to start up.

"What happened to Erik?"

"Oh." Emily nodded, realizing she hadn't told her roommate about the previous night. "It wasn't working. I think we were trying to make something out of nothing. I ended things last night – not that we were ever officially together."

"So you and Spence?"

"I don't know, JJ." She shrugged. "He's a nice kid but he's not really my type, ya know?'

"I didn't think Derek was my type." JJ pointed out. "Maybe you need something different. I mean, you've always dated the same kind of guys and after a while, you get tired of them or it doesn't work out."

Emily nodded slowly. "You're right. I do need a change. I can agree with that. Is it Spencer though? I don't know. I don't really know that much about him." She said. "I guess we'll see though. I think I'm going to stick with being friends for now. I think that's something major that I'm missing."

JJ climbed to her feet. "I think you're right. And I think that's very grown up of you to say that."

Emily cringed. "I'm not grown up yet." She laughed. "I'm still the same Emily. Just slightly less… promiscuous."

"Riiight." JJ giggled.

"Seriously!"

"Emily -." JJ was interrupted by a knock on the door. "Oh man."

"You'll be fine. Now go answer the door."

JJ took a deep breath and opened the door, revealing an 'obviously nervous but trying to hide it' Derek Morgan, clad in dark blue jeans and a light green shirt that fit him just right.

"Hey." She smiled, trying not to stutter with nerves.

"Hey, JJ, wow… you, you look great." He stumbled over his words.

"Thanks, you look pretty good yourself."

"You, um, you ready to go?"

"Yep."

"Bye kids! Have fun!" Emily teased from inside the room.

JJ rolled her eyes. "Bye, Em. I'll see you later tonight." She replied, closing the door behind her.

"Do you like Italian?" Derek asked as they walked down the hall of their building.

"I love Italian."

"Okay, good. There's a place downtown that has amazing food." He told her, taking her hand in his.


	6. Chapter 6

Sorry for the wait! Spent the long weekend in Washington DC, checking out two grad schools and I just got back tonight. I swear I had this written already but the papers appear to have gone missing. I searched and searched but I couldn't find it so I just started from scratch. Anyway, here's chapter six. Hope you like it. Don't forget to let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Chapter Six

"So, have you always played soccer or just in high school? Derek asked as the waitress placed their food in front of them.

"Oh, high school I didn't start 'til I was a sophomore. I realized it was the only way I was going to get out of North Versailles was on a sports scholarship." JJ replied, eyeing her plate of cheese ravioli hungrily. "What about you?"

"I started playing basketball when I was in 4th grade but football is more of a recent development; last year of Junior High actually." He told her.

"But you're here for football instead of basketball?"

"I love basketball but I figured it would lose some of its excitement if I _had_ to do it."

"Understandable."

Derek nodded before continuing. "What about your family? Were the supportive of you going to college?"

"Oh, yeah. Both of my parents were thrilled. I think they had their doubts about me when I was in high school, so getting a full scholarship – they were thrilled." JJ told him.

"Doubts?" He smirked. "Were you a rebellious teen?"

JJ laughed. "No, not at all. I just… I was just your average high school jock really. I mean, I didn't love soccer as much as some people but I was definitely in it to win it; I was the captain, you know. Not to mention, everyone knew me so I was constantly out late, partying, you know."

"Ah, so it wasn't _all_ Emily's bad influence."

JJ smiled. "No, not completely, I guess. Em was definitely the wild child. I don't think my parents actually knew what was going on in our lives. They thought Em was a great person. I guess we were good at hiding our partying ways." She tried to explain. "I think I'm rambling."

Derek shook his head. "Nothing I'm not used to. So you and Emily were the typical high school jocks. Her more so than you, but you still got into your fair share of trouble."

"Um, yeah. Pretty much." JJ nodded, taking another bite of her ravioli. "This is really good food. Seriously, like the best ravioli I've ever had." She admitted. "Oh well, except for that place in Boston."

"In the Quincy Market?" Derek asked.

JJ nodded. "Yeah. We spent a weekend there during our senior year."

"Your family?"

"No, a bunch of the athletes. There was a small group of us that were really close." She explained. "We spent the time partying and -."

"JJ!" A voice interrupted her explanation.

JJ closed her eyes, recognizing the voice instantly, before turning around to face none other than Doug. Again. "Doug." She plastered a fake smile on her face, hoping he was here with someone else that would pull him away. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm, uh, I'm meeting a few friends here from one of my classes." He shrugged. "Hey, listen. Can, can we talk? About, you know, the other night? I didn't, uh, mean to -."

"No. Doug, no. Just go, go wait for your friends." She interrupted his apology. Or rather, fake apology. It was just something that he did.

"JJ." He said sternly. "What are you; too busy whoring around to spend five minutes with a friend?"

"Hey, man. C'mon. She said no." Derek piped up, slowly climbing to his feet.

Frowning, Doug stepped back. He remembered Derek from the party and was not willing to risk another black eye tonight when he planned on getting laid. "Whatever, man. Have fun with her while you can. Girls like her don't stick around." He said to Derek, while staring at JJ. "You know how it is."

"Doug! Just leave me alone!" JJ cried, grabbing Derek's clenched hand to stop him from taking the swing that he so desperately wanted to.

Without a response, Doug stalked off in the opposite direction, leaving JJ and Derek to themselves.

"Are you alright?" Derek looked down at JJ, whose head was hung, staring at her hands in her lap. "Hey, JJ. Talk to me." He squatted down so he was eye level with her and attempted to make some sort of eye contact.

"I'm sorry, Derek." She sniffled, looking up and meeting his gaze. "Can, can we get out of here?"

"Of course, yeah. Let me grab the check. Stay here." He climbed back to his feet and signaled the waitress. "Thank you." He smiled at her before reaching down to JJ. "C'mon, let's go for a walk."

They walked in silence down the street, back towards the campus, for a few minutes before JJ suddenly spoke up. "Tell me about yourself. I was a jock; what were you like?"

"Well, in high school, I… was a player. There's really no point in trying to deny that. My mama, she wasn't really happy about it."

"Was it just the two of you?"

"No, I have two younger sisters, too." He replied. "She wasn't very happy but since I got the grades and it didn't interfere with my home life, there wasn't much she could do. She'd tried to talk to me, but it was just the way of life in my high school."

JJ nodded slowly, internally cringing. _"Maybe this was a bad idea…"_

"I know what you're thinking, JJ. It does sound bad, but I never purposely disrespected a girl. My mama did teach me how to treat a girl. It just happened that there were a lot of girls that were on the receiving end of that treatment. But don't worry; I left those days behind when I graduated."

"When, when I was a sophomore… I was pretty popular. I mean, I had been popular since well, forever, I guess but once I joined the soccer team, the popularity level definitely increased." JJ started, struggling to explain what was going on. "Anyway, you know how it is. Guys started to notice me, even more so than before. Doug, he… he was on the football team. The quarterback, actually." She shook her head. "I was dating another sophomore at the time but when Doug took an interest… I stayed with Mason for another few months, 'til about halfway through the summer before he moved away. Emily convinced me to finish the summer single, which was a good idea. Doug had girls all over him all the time."

Derek took her hand in his, squeezing gently. "You don't have to tell me, JJ."

"You deserve to know, Derek. I don't doubt this is the last time we'll see him. I really like you, Derek, and I want this to work but, but it's only fair if you know what you're getting yourself into." She stopped walking, tugging on his hand to get him to face her. "Doug did something horrible but I'm dealing with it; me and Emily. She's the only one who knows. And, and if you aren't in this with me, I… I can't tell you."

"Okay, okay." Derek nodded. "Shh… listen. I'm in this, too, JJ. I want this to work. But let's slow down a minute, okay?"

JJ nodded, pulling her bottom lip in between her teeth.

"What happened in your past is your past. You tell me when you're ready. Not tonight, not after that." He glanced back to the restaurant quickly before turning back to her. "I want you to be sure, because if not, if you don't want me to know – then it isn't my business."

"I'm damaged goods." She whispered, blinking her eyes rapidly to keep the tears at bay.

"Not to me." He took a step closer to her, not breaking their eye contact. "You're perfect to me." He leaned down, pausing briefly to give her the chance to change her mind. When she didn't, he closed the cap and captured her lips with his.

* * *

Yes, I know the ending line was cheesy but it's getting late and after a 8 hour drive back from DC, my mind is going a little crazy. Also, sorry if you were expecting more but I like to think JJ is a more conservative person and isn't a sex on the first date kind of girl.


	7. Chapter 7

AN: Alright guys, I'm so so so sorry for the wait. The last few weeks of the semester were ridiculous (huge projects, two 15 page papers, a 10 page paper, and 2 final exams, eek), and then the holidays were here so needless to say, I've been swamped. And I know this isn't much but someone asked for some more Spencer, so I gave it my best. I haven't decided if I really know how to write his character so I apologize if it's slightly OOC.

Anyway, here it is. Let me know what you think. And I hope everyone has a very happy holiday season!

Disclaimer: I own nothing. I want JJ back on the show though.

* * *

Chapter Seven

"So, what's the deal with you and Derek?" Emily asked as they walked towards the soccer field almost a week later.

_ After they had gotten back to their dorm rooms, JJ had set about digging out her keys when the sound of Emily and Spencer laughing hysterically stopped her._

_ "Let's not interrupt them." Derek placed his hand over hers. "We can watch a movie, if you want?" JJ nodded and let herself be led into his room._

_ What had started out as a quiet, cuddling while watching a movie session quickly turned into a pretty heated make-out session that was only interrupted when Spencer opened the door, causing them to jump apart while he stood there awkwardly, blushing bright red. He had apologized profusely while JJ buried her face in Derek's chest, trying not to laugh at him._

_ They had talked for a few minutes before JJ decided to head to bed – at which point she quickly crossed the hall and climbed into bed, thankful that Emily was already sound asleep._

"I don't know actually. I guess we're together but we haven't really discussed it." JJ shrugged.

Emily nodded. "Have you slept with him?"

"Emily!" JJ exclaimed.

"What?" She asked innocently. "It's a perfectly reasonable question. Especially after that make-out session Spence walked into."

JJ sighed and shook her head. "No, we haven't. He knows that I have a complicated past, so I think he's trying to be respectful of that." She explained.

"Did you tell him about Doug?"

"No, but I think he deserves to know, if he's gunna stick with me, ya know?"

"Understandable." Emily agreed. "I bet once you tell him he'll be more open to sex."

"Emily!" JJ exclaimed again.

"I'm just sayin', JJ. He probably thinks you aren't ready."

"But he doesn't -."

"He may not know but he probably has a pretty good idea. Or he, at least, figures that you were hurt really bad by him."

JJ sighed again. "Maybe I should just jump him."

"You could do that, too."

"What are we doing for Halloween?" JJ changed the subject. "It's in less than two weeks."

"Lauren is throwing another party at her place." Emily replied. "We can go to that, if you want?"

JJ nodded. "Sure."

"How far you wanna go this time?" She asked, referring to the track in front of them.

"My game is in forty-five minutes so, two miles?"

"'Kay." Emily nodded as she stretched her legs. "Is Derek coming today and am I sitting by myself?"

"He said he'll be there by the half, at the latest. He has practice. Spence said he'd be there, though."

"Okay."

"How are things going with him?"

"They're good. He's fun." She replied as they started off at a slow jog. "We're going to see a movie tonight; do you and Derek wanna join?"

"I'll ask him."

The two girls fell quiet and just under fifteen minutes later, they were slowing their run to a walk.

"Hey, Emily, JJ." Spencer's voice came from a set of bleachers to their right.

Still breathing heavily, both girls waved and made their way over to him.

"I'm gunna go shower and head to the game. I'll see you there." JJ said.

"Good luck!" Spencer called after her. "How are you?" He turned to Emily.

"Gross and sweaty." She replied with a smile.

"I find your honesty quite refreshing."

"Thanks, I try." She laughed. "What'cha doing out here?"

"I figured I'd walk you over to the game." He shrugged. "And I was in Charlton for a class."

Emily nodded. "And here I thought maybe you were stalking me." She giggled. "Let me shower real fast and we can head over. JJ's starting this game; I don't wanna miss the beginning."

"Okay." He jumped off the bleachers and they headed back to their dorm building.

Half an hour later, Spencer and Emily were making their way back across campus towards the soccer field. They were laughing at something Emily had said about her English professor when Spencer got quiet.

"Hey, Em?" He stopped walking; hands shoved in his pockets, and started rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet.

"Yeah?" Emily had continued walking, not realizing that Spencer had stopped.

"Can, can I ask you a question?" He asked, still standing in the same spot that he had stopped in.

"Yeah, of course." She looked to her right and finally realized that he wasn't walking next to her. Glancing behind her, she frowned in confusion before walking back towards him.

"I was wondering, could I maybe, uh, could I take you out? On a date? Sometime?" He stammered. "I mean, it's okay if not, I just, just wanted to -."

"Spencer!" Emily giggled, grabbing his flailing hands. "Yes, you can."

"What? Really?" He asked, eyes wide in surprise.

"Of course." She smiled, letting their hands fall in between them. "C'mon, the game's starting." She nodded over her shoulder to the sounds of the crowd cheering and proceeded to drag him after her, both of them grinning goofily.


	8. Chapter 8

AN: Alright guys, there isn't much here again. Sorry! I'm in between semesters so I'm trying to come up with some stuff but I seem to be having this intense writer's block. Feel free to throw out some ideas! Anyway, I'm going to be across the country in California (I'm from Massachusetts) for the next week so send me some reviews, thoughts, and whatever else you feel like saying, and I'll try to update by the weekend after next.

Again, thanks for reading. Hope I'm not boring you too much!

Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal minds or anything related to the show.

* * *

Chapter Eight

"Woohooo! Go, JJ!" Emily cheered from the bleachers as JJ scored the team's third goal of the first half. Spencer eagerly clapped alongside his friend.

"When's Derek getting here?" He asked, once the crowd had died down.

"JJ said he'd be here by halftime at the latest." Emily shrugged. "He had practice this morning. She's making a break for the goal again!" She jumped to her feet as JJ dribbled the ball down the field towards the goal for the second time in only five minutes.

"Um, Em?" Spencer tapped her elbow. "I don't know much as much about this sport, but does she not see the girl coming up on her left side?"

Emily shook her head. "I hope so. C'mon JJ!"

Unfortunately Spencer was right and JJ had no idea there was an opponent of hers coming up on her left side. Just as she brought her leg back to send the ball towards the goal, the girl threw her leg out. Instead of hitting the ball, though, she caught the underside of JJ's cleat and sent her tumbling towards the ground. Unable to steady herself, the other girl followed JJ to the ground, landing partially on top of her.

Emily shook her head and fell back onto the bleachers. "They're going to pull her now. At least 'til after the half."

Spencer suddenly jumped to his feet, startling Emily. "Em, she's not getting up."

"What?" Emily quickly joined Spencer, watching intently as the girl from the opposing team climbed to her feet but JJ didn't.

"Is that blood?" Spencer squinted his eyes, trying to make out what was happening.

"Oh shit. C'mon, Spence. They're bringing the medic out to the field. I gotta get down there." She grabbed his hand and dragged him down the stairs towards the field. "Cam!" She called to one of JJ's teammates as they ran towards the field. "Cam! Is she alright?"

"I don't know. She's out cold. I think she got it in the head." The young blonde girl replied nervously. "They're bringing her off the field."

"Spence, call Derek, now." Emily told him, watching the medics lift JJ onto the stretcher. "Where are they going to take her?"

"She's not waking up so they'll take her to Pittsburgh Medical. It's the closest hospital." Cameron replied.

"Alright, thanks." Emily nodded and ran off after the medics; Spencer following close behind. "Did you get a hold of Derek?"

"Yeah, he was on his way over here. I told him to meet us in the resident lot near my car." He replied. "He'll be there in five minutes."

Emily nodded again and they continued their sprint towards the parking lot.

"Em, what happened?" Derek cried from his spot next to Spencer's blue Ford Focus.

"She was just about to shoot and another girl took her down, and then went down with her. Cam thinks she got one to the head. I didn't get a close enough look. Coach Robbins was already on the field. They're taking her to Pitts Medical." She explained.

"Alright. Let's go, kid." Derek snatched the keys from Spencer's hand and they all jumped into the car.

"I'm really hoping it's only a concussion, but she didn't get up, Derek. She stayed down, like, out cold. And there was blood." Emily stated nervously.

"It's alright, Em. Let's just focus on getting there." Derek replied, taking a deep breath before pulling out onto the highway. "She's going to be fine."

Not even ten minutes later, Derek slammed the car into park and they ran into the emergency room.

"Coach Robbins!" Emily called as they headed towards the middle-aged brunette clad in jeans and a polo shirt, pacing the waiting room. "Is she okay? What happened?"

Robbins shook her head. "They haven't said anything yet. They took her back for a CT."

"A CT?" Derek questioned.

"When Taylor tried for the ball, she caught the bottom of Jareau's cleat, taking her to the ground. Unfortunately, when Taylor went down with her, she kicked Jareau… in, in the side of the f-face." Robbins explained. "Also, I think she blew her wrist when she tried to catch herself, but they didn't mention anything about that yet."

"But, she's going to be okay, right? I mean, it's probably just a concussion, right?" Emily asked, blinking rapidly to keep the unshed tears at bay.

"I hope so, Prentiss." Robbins sighed. "I hope so.


	9. Chapter 9

Hey guys, sorry it's been so long. I suck, I know. School is kicking my behind. I do not recommend taking 6 college courses to anyone, especially upper level Criminal Justice courses. It's insane. Also, working 40 hours while taking said 6 courses? Definitely a bad idea. Anyway, here's chapter 9. I've started chapter 10 and I'm going to attempt to finish it this weekend, but if not, look for an update by the end of the week.

Again, sorry for the delay. I wouldn't be surprised if I lost some of y'all but to those that have stuck around, I really appreciate it!

* * *

Chapter Nine

"Oww…"

Derek sighed again. JJ had been mumbling unconsciously for the last two and a half hours, but she still hadn't woken up. The doctors had assured him that it was part of the healing process. She had, in fact, suffered a mild concussion and a broken wrist. They were currently waiting for the rest of the tests to come back to make sure there was no intracranial bleeding.

"Oww…" JJ mumbled again. "Em...ly?"

Derek glanced up at the bed and practically jumped out of his seat when he saw a pair of blue eyes staring back at him.

"Derek?" She groaned.

"JJ? Hey, beautiful." He let out a huge sigh of relief. "You gave up quite a scare there, babe."

"Uhh." She blinked slowly and lifted her left arm in an attempt to wipe at her eyes but stopped when she saw the cast. "What happened?"

"You took a pretty hard fall at your game. I wasn't there but both Em and Spence were. And Robbins said it looked rough." He explained, taking her right hand in his own. "Does your head hurt? Do you want me to get the nurse?"

JJ closed her eyes again and shook her head. "Where's Em?"

"Her and Spence went down to the cafeteria. They should be back any minute." He replied. "Babe, are you sure you're alright?"

Nodding her head slightly, JJ opened her eyes. "Can, can you get the doctor? My head hurts and, and I'd like to know why."

"Of course. Hang on a few minutes, okay?" Derek climbed to his feet and, without waiting for a reply, headed out the door and towards the nurses' station.

JJ used this time alone to her advantage and began taking in her surroundings. She recognized her room as a hospital room. She figured it was Pittsburgh Medical since that's where all the athletes were taken. Sighing, she attempted to push herself up into a sitting position but failed miserably and fell back to the bed. Frustrated, she lifted her left arm and studied the bright yellow cast that adorned it. Emily had already scrawled a get well note across it and Spencer had signed his name just below hers.

"Miss Jareau?" A young man with brown hair, who couldn't have been much older than JJ herself, entered the room with Derek following close behind. "I'm Doctor Barnett. How are you feeling?"

"Like shit." JJ responded automatically before groaning at the lack of a filter on her mouth. "I'm sorry."

Dr. Barnett smiled. "It's cool. Your honesty is refreshing." He grabbed her chart off the end of her bed and flipped it open. "Do you remember what happened at all?"

"It's kinda fuzzy." She replied. "I remember being at my game. And running towards the goal, but after that, it's a blur."

"That's completely normal. From what I understand, you got kicked in the head hard. I wasn't here when you were brought in but it says here that your coach was. She said one of the players on the opposite team side-tackled you and ended up going down with you. You broke your wrist in a way that it looks like you were trying to catch yourself."

"Her cleat, my head. Wonderful." JJ sighed.

"Exactly. But it looks like your head is pretty solid because there aren't any signs of bleeding. Just a mild concussion, which explains your headache."

"Does that mean I can get out of here?" She asked, attempting to sit up again.

"Whoa, JJ. Slow down." Derek placed a hand on her shoulder. "You have a concussion. Take it easy."

"It's just a concussion, Derek. I'll be fine." She retorted.

Dr. Barnett smirked. "You're right, Jennifer, you will be fine. But your friend here is right, too. You're out of the danger zone now but concussions are unpredictable. We're keeping you here overnight and if all goes well, you'll be able to be discharged tomorrow morning."

"Overnight?" JJ exclaimed. "Dr. Barnett! C'mon! I'm fine! It's just a headache!"

"Sorry, Jennifer, but it looks like you're going to be keeping me company on the graveyard shift tonight." He smirked again.

JJ groaned and dropped her head back onto the pillows. "Fine. But please, call me JJ. Don't call me Jennifer. Only my parents do that, and you're like half their age."

Dr. Barnett chuckled. "Okay, JJ. If I'm half their age, then Dr. Barnett seems a little too old for me. Call me Ray."

JJ nodded. "It's a deal. Now, is it possible that I can get something for my headache? Since you're making me stay here all night?"

"You bet. I'll send the nurse in with some Tylenol. I'll be around if you need me."

"Thanks." She replied as he left the room. She glanced over to her left side to see Derek sitting in one of the chairs along the window. "What'cha doing over there?"

"Just waiting for you guys to finish flirting." Derek replied, rolling his eyes.

"What?" JJ's jaw dropped at his tone and obvious jealousy. "We weren't flirting, Derek. One, he's way too old. Two, he's my doctor. And three, we were just discussing my injuries."

"He's a few years older than us, and that sure didn't sound like 'discussing your injuries'."

"Derek!" JJ exclaimed.

Derek sighed. "I'm sorry, JJ, I didn't mean to snap. It's just, he was totally checking you out and I didn't like it."

"Derek, have you seen me? I'm a little bit of a mess right now. I don't know what he was looking at but it wasn't me."

"You're not a mess, JJ. You're hurt. There's a difference." He grabbed her non-broken hand in his and squeezed it slightly. "You're still beautiful to me."

"You're such a cheese." JJ laughed.


	10. Chapter 10

AN: Alright, it's official. I suck. I know it's been 2 months but I hope you guys are still reading. I'm currently on Spring Break right now so hopefully I'll be able to get out another chapter before classes start again on Monday. And just for waiting, this chapter is extra long. It's practically double the length of the rest. I hope you enjoy it!

foxyfeline, I apologize. I know I promised an update by Friday but the week passed faster than I thought it would. So, here's the new chapter! I hope you enjoy it. I think I did a pretty decent job. More of JJ's (and Emily's) pasts will be discussed in the next chapter.

Thanks again to everyone who's reading! Please let me know what you think!

* * *

Chapter 10

"Emily! Seriously! Hurry up!" JJ exclaimed for the third time. It was almost nine o'clock and Lauren's Halloween party had started at eight-thirty.

"I'm done! I'm done!" Emily fixed her headband once more before standing from her desk where she had been applying her makeup. "Good Lord, JJ, you have no patience."

"I was being patient. An hour and a half ago!" She replied dramatically.

"Sorry! I'm, I'm just a little nervous. This is the first time Spencer and I are going out, together, in public… you know, with other college kids around."

"Em, you'll be fine. You guys have gone on like a billion dates, you hang out every day… you'll be fine. You're practically dating already." JJ tried to reassure her.

"Speak for yourself. You and Derek still haven't figured out what you guys are doing." Emily pointed out. "I mean, I thought you were going to ask him about it?"

"I was. And then that game happened. We've barely gone out since then. Classes are kicking our asses right now. I'll ask him tonight." She replied as there was a knock on the door. "Now come on, ladybug. We have a party to get to." She pulled the door open to reveal Derek and Spencer, dressed as a gangster and a geeky scientist, respectively.

"Hey, JJ, stop." Emily said from behind her before readjusting the skirt to her costume. "You're bumblebee-hind was showing."

"You're obnoxious." JJ told her but couldn't help from laughing. She took Derek's outstretched hand and headed down the hallway of the dorm; Emily and Spencer following close behind. "Hey, can I ask you something?" JJ stopped walking suddenly, causing Emily to walk right into her. "Sorry, Em. You guys go ahead. I… forgot my cellphone."

Emily nodded, catching onto JJ's unspoken words. "We'll wait for you downstairs."

Once the other two were out of earshot, Derek turned to face JJ. "What's up, babe?"

"I, I've never had this conversation before so sorry if it sounds ridiculous, but what are we doing?" She asked, not wanting to beat around the bush. "Like, are we friends? Are we dating? Are we a couple? I've never needed to stop and define a relationship before. I'm not sure exactly how to do it."

"JJ, stop." Derek squeezed her hand, interrupting her ramble. "I like you, you like me, correct?"

JJ nodded slowly, not sure where he was going with this. "Yes, yes that's correct."

"Okay, so what's the problem?" He asked. "Do we really need to find a definition for it?"

"I just…" JJ paused, not wanting her words to come out wrong and be misconstrued. "We're dating. That's what I think is happening here. I think you're my boyfriend. I think that means I don't see other guys or flirt with emergency room doctors. I want to know what you think though, because if you think we're just friends who mess around then you need to tell me before I get myself in too deep."

"No!" Derek exclaimed. "No. We're not just messin' around, JJ. I told you that before. And no, I don't see or flirt with other girls. You're my girlfriend. That's what I think. We are dating. We're a couple. We're together. We're … well, you get the point." He shrugged. "But there's more, isn't there?"

JJ sighed and nodded. "Yeah, uh, I… Derek, I come with some baggage. And I know I told you this before but I'm going to repeat myself so that you really understand. I won't hold it against you if you bail. I'm not good at this relationship situation so you're going to have to be patient. I've had boyfriends, yes, but I've only had one serious relationship, and that is a different story for a different day. What I'm sayin' is that I don't know how to be a girlfriend. I'm going to make mistakes but so does everyone else. And you aren't allowed to bail when I do because… because I said so."

"JJ, I wouldn't bail on you because you made a mistake." He placed his hands on her waist and pulled her towards him. "I don't expect you to be perfect."

"I just… I want you understand, understand what you're getting yourself into." She sighed, resting her head against his chest.

Derek lifted her chin with his finger so he could meet her eyes. "Babe, I do. Trust me. I know exactly what I'm doing."

"You're sure?"

"Absolutely." He nodded, leaning down to place a kiss on her lips.

"Okay." She whispered when they broke apart.

"Come on. Let's get to downstairs before Emily comes up here and makes some awkward comment." He smirked, taking her hand in his and entwining their fingers. "I think we should let Spencer and Emily have the room tonight. What do you think?"

"My room?" She asked, following him into the stairwell. "Or your room?"

Derek chuckled. "Either way if you're bunking with me."

"Oh!" JJ exclaimed. "Wait, are you… you mean…?"

"I mean I want to spend the night sleeping to the most beautiful bumblebee I know." He replied, pausing and turning around on the step in front of her to face, making him just about eye level with her.

"So you don't…?" She trailed off, not knowing how to form the question she wanted to ask.

"Babe, you know I do, but I don't want to rush things." He told her seriously. "I want to make sure we're both sure about everything and that we're both ready to take it to the next level. It's only been a month and a half. I want to do this right."

JJ pulled her bottom lip in between her teeth and nodded. "Okay."

"And besides, you said there were things I needed to know before we did that. So, when you're ready to talk about those things, and take your time, I mean it, and then we'll go from there."

"I want to tell you, Derek. I do. I just don't know how. I've never told anyone, besides Em, and that's because she was there."

Derek nodded. "It's okay. We'll talk about it later, babe." Grabbing her hand once more, Derek continued down the staircase and out of the building, where Spencer and Emily were standing with their arms wrapped around each other, whispering quietly. "Hey, get a room, you two."

Emily leaned into Spencer and laughed. "Don't mind if we do." She turned to look at her best friend and boyfriend. "We thought you decided to bail on us."

JJ shook her head, smiling at her best friends' obvious happiness. "Nope. Just made a pit stop."

"Riiight." Emily nodded and pulled back from Spencer. "C'mon, let's get to the party. I want a beverage of the alcoholic variety."

"I'm down with that." Derek laughed and followed the other two across the campus quad.

Two hours later, JJ was severely intoxicated and giggling obnoxiously at a corny joke that one of Derek's teammates had made. Spencer and Emily were in the kitchen, refilling their drinks and Derek had decided to make a trip to the bathroom.

"JJ!" Lauren, the hostess, sat down next to the blonde. "There's a guy here that is looking for you. I told him you weren't here but he didn't believe me. He's kind of creepin' me out though. He was at the last party I had, too. I think he said his name was Doug?"

A sober JJ would have calmly left the room and convinced Doug to leave, but a drunken JJ had a different plan. She chugged down the rest of her drink and walked into the back room, where students were either making out with each other or drunkenly playing pool. She easily found Doug searching the room and made her way over to him.

"What do you want, Doug?" She snapped.

"I told you we weren't over and I meant it, JJ." He replied calmly.

"No, Doug, we ARE over. It's been months. Leave me alone. I let you get away with what you did. Take it and run before I do something to ruin your life." JJ refused to let him get his way this time. She was sick of seeing him and didn't want to deal with his drama anymore.

"JJ. C'mon. I apologized. You know I was drunk and -."

"No!" She exclaimed. "You were not drunk! Yes, there was drinking involved but you were NOT drunk! Stop pretending you didn't do anything wrong! I was there, remember? I KNOW what you did. Emily KNOWS what you did. And everyone in this state will know what you did if you don't leave me alone now!"

"What's going on?" Emily appeared in the doorway. Most of the other partiers had cleared out when JJ started yelling and someone had told Emily that she was freaking out. "Doug, what are you doing here?"

"I just want to talk to JJ, Emily. This isn't any of your business." He replied dismissively.

"Yes, yes it is her business, Doug. She was the one that witnessed what you did! She took care of me afterwards. She helped me through it. She was there! She had to suffer through this just as much as I did, if not more, because she couldn't stop you and your dumbass friends! So yes, it is her business!" JJ was fuming now and the alcohol was not helping the situation at all. "Leave. Now. Or I'm calling the police and ratting out you and every single one of your friends."

"JJ -."

"Now!" She yelled, bringing her hand up and slapping him directly across the face.

"You stupid bitch. You deserved everything that you got. You brought it on yourself." He growled before storming out the back door, slamming it shut behind him with enough force to shake the house.

The room was silent for about thirty seconds before JJ started to sob. Emily was by her side in a flash, wrapping an arm around her waist as her knees buckled and she fell towards the floor.

"JJ, c'mon. Let's go outside." She whispered forcefully. "You need to breath. In and out. C'mon, JJ."

"I can't, he just, so furious! Why me? Why didn't we -." She stammered, struggling to catch her breath in between sobs.

"We still can, JJ. We can go now. I'll drive you to the station now. It's only been six weeks." Emily replied once she had helped her best friend to sit on a lounge chair in the backyard.

JJ shook her head. "I can't. My parents, they'd be so, so disappointed. And Derek? He wouldn't want anything to do with me afterwards. Emily, you were there. You know what happened. Would you wanna be with someone after that happened to them?"

"JJ. Stop." Emily sat down next to the blonde and took both of her hands in hers. "Stop. You didn't do anything wrong. I swear you didn't. Doug and his friends, they took advantage of you –"

"And you." JJ added quietly.

"Mentally, yes, but JJ, they hurt you physically. More than once. I'm only hurting because you're hurting."

"No, Em, I know what happened. I remember. I, I had a nightmare a few weeks back. The first week of school. I know what they did to you, too. You went through the same thing."

"JJ, I did NOT go through what you went through. You went through weeks of it. It only happened to me once."

"Still -."

"JJ, please, stop." Emily sighed, pulling her headband off her head and running a hand through her dark hair. "Do we need to go to the station? Or the hospital? Because we can. The, the evidence is there. It won't take much."

JJ didn't respond at first, silently contemplating everything in her head. "Em, I'm scared. What if I do and nothing happens and he comes back again? He'll be even angrier than before."

"And what if you don't say anything? You know he'll be back again. JJ, this has to be your decision. You know I'm going to support you either way though."

"Can, can we do it tomorrow?" JJ asked hesitantly. "When we haven't been drinking? If I'm going to do this, they have to take me seriously. And they, they won't, if I can't even pass a stupid breathalyzer."

"Of course." Emily nodded, wrapping an arm around JJ's shoulder and pulling her into her. "Do you want to go back to the room? Or do you wanna stay?"

"I, Derek wants me to stay with him tonight." JJ admitted quietly. "Not to, you know, have sex, but, but he wanted you and Spence to have a night to yourselves."

"Do you want to do that? Spencer isn't my priority right now, JJ. You are." She replied, holding her close still.

"I… don't know that I can." She whispered as the tears started streaming down her face again.

"JJ, that's fine. We can talk to Derek. You know he'll understand."

"I, I'm just afraid. Afraid that he's going to bail be, because I'm a freakin' mess. No one wants to, to deal with this crap." She confessed. "He's going to find out and run."

"I told you I wasn't going to run away from you, JJ." A new voice spoke quietly, causing both girls to raise their heads in that direction. "What happened, babe? Someone said you were freaking out."

Dropping her head onto Emily's shoulder, JJ sniffled and squeezed her eyes closed again. "Doug showed up again and, and…"

"JJ spoke her mind." Emily finished. "It's complicated, Derek. And I know you're probably frustrated but we need you to be okay with this. It will make sense in a few days."

"A few days?"

"We have something important to take care of tomorrow." Emily informed him. "And it's going to …"

"Cause a lot of problems." JJ opened her eyes to meet his concerned gaze. "I'm sorry, Der. I told you I'm a mess. If you want to -."

"If the next word out of your mouth is leave, Jennifer Jareau, I'm going to scream." He interrupted, grabbing her free hand in his. "I told you once and I'll tell you again. I don't want to leave. I'm not going to leave. You couldn't force me to leave. Everyone has their complications, I get it."

JJ sniffled again, picking her head up off of Emily's shoulder and rolling her lips together. "Do you mean it? One hundred percent?"

"Yes. One hundred and fifty percent. JJ, please, believe me." He all but begged.

Nodding, JJ squeezed her boyfriends' hand and smiled before turning to Emily. "Let's go back to the room. Go get Spencer."

Knowing she wanted a minute with Derek, Emily climbed to her feet and headed back inside to find her own boyfriend.

"Are you okay, babe?" Derek asked sincerely. "Do we need to call someone? Your parents? The Dean? Local authorities?"

JJ shook her head. "I'm sorry for putting you through this, Derek. I, we're going to deal with it tomorrow. In the morning. Can we talk about it tomorrow night? After your practice gets out?"

"Of course." He nodded, pulling JJ into his arms and holding her tightly while they waited for Emily and Spencer to return.

"Thank you." She whispered into his ear, wrapping her arms around him tightly before kissing his cheek.


	11. Chapter 11

AN: Sorry for the wait, guys. I really wanted to make this chapter worth it, you know, live up to the hype but I'm not sure I did that. I'm not very good at writing these scenes. Anyway, here it is. Let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: I don't own anythingg.

* * *

Chapter Eleven

The following morning, JJ woke up to find Emily squished onto her twin-size bed beside her. Confused, she propped herself up on her elbow and shoved her friend with her cast. "Emily?"

"Mmm." Emily swatted her hand away. "Five more minutes."

"Em, what are you doing in my bed?"

"Hm?" Emily's eyes popped open at that question. "What?"

"You. In my bed. Why?"

Emily blinked and stretched her arms above her head. "You had a nightmare."

"Oh." JJ nodded and laid back down on her bed. "Sorry."

"JJ…" Emily frowned. "It's fine. Don't worry about it."

JJ nodded again. "Are we still…"

"Only if you want to." Emily replied, knowing exactly what she was going to ask.

"I do. Should we go to, to the hospital or, or the police station?" She stammered.

Emily hesitated before responding. "The hospital. They'll call the police."

JJ rubbed at her right eye and sat up quickly. "I guess we better get it over with then."

"JJ. Wait." Emily stopped her from climbing out of the small bed. "Are you positive? You're going to have to tell them everything. I mean, I just want…" She rolled her lips before continuing. "They're going to ask questions. You're going to have to go into details. I'll tell my side, but they're really going to be focused on you."

"I know." JJ sighed, running her not broken hand through her blonde hair. "It's only going to get worse if we don't say something though. We should have done something weeks ago."

"Okay." Emily nodded. "Let's go."

Hours later, both girls were walking into the emergency room in their hometown of North Versailles. Sensing JJ's nervousness, Emily took her right hand in hers and squeezed it lightly.

"You ready?"

Closing her eyes for a brief second, JJ nodded. "It's now or never." She inhaled deeply before approaching the front desk.

"Can I help you girls?" The receptionist asked.

"We, uh, we need to report a, a… rape." JJ struggled to get the words out, knowing that it was only seconds before she started bawling. "Jennifer Jareau."

The receptionist smiled sadly and nodded. "Head down this hall and into the first room on the left. I'll send a nurse in right away."

"Thank you." JJ whispered before letting Emily lead her down the hallway.

They had barely entered the room before a nurse was walking in. JJ pushed herself up onto the gurney that was sitting there while Emily took a seat beside her.

"Hey girls. My name's Lexie. I'm just goin' to get everythin' started and then the police will take over. Does that sound okay?" The brunette spoke softly with a Southern accent.

"We, uh, we've already been here." JJ told her. "S-six weeks ago. They ran tests and…"

"Collected the ev-evidence they needed." Emily continued. "We never pressed charges, but we'd like to now."

Lexie nodded. "Okay. Can I ask what made you change your minds?"

"He, Doug, he won't leave me alone. He keeps showing up at parties on campus that I'm at. And he was at one of my soccer games."

"Okay. Do you have any injuries that haven't healed yet?"

"Like… bruises?" JJ asked, slightly confused.

"Anything." Lexie replied. "I need to write up a follow-up report that shows you did come back so the police can compare it to the notes that were taken the first time."

JJ shook her head. "Not that I can remember."

Lexie opened her mouth to respond but a knock on the door interrupted. She quickly cracked the door to reveal two young women in police uniforms waiting patiently. "Come on in."

"Jennifer Jareau?" The blonde officer asked.

"That's me." JJ spoke quietly.

"How are you feeling, sweetie?" The officer approached the bed slowly.

"I've been better." She admitted. "I just want to get this over with."

The officer nodded sympathetically. "Understandable. What I'm going to need is for you to tell me exactly what happened, including your last visit here."

Taking a deep breath, JJ nodded. "It was about six weeks ago. I was at a small party, celebrating the end of the summer. Emily was with me. My boyfriend at the time, Doug Randall, and a few of his friends were getting really drunk so I offered to drive them home."

_"C'mon, Doug. It's late and we should probably go. I'll drive y'all home." JJ tugged on his hand slightly._

_ "Alright. Hey, c'mon fellas! JJ's gunna drive!" Doug hollered to his friends that were standing right next to him._

_ Walking out towards JJ's black SUV, Emily pulled her friend aside. "JJ, I think something's wrong with them. I mean, besides being incredibly drunk."_

_ JJ nodded. "I think they're high. Hopefully they won't throw up in my car…"_

_ Before Emily could respond, JJ felt herself lifted off the ground and thrown into the backseat of the SUV. "JJ!" She ran towards the car, eyes wide in panic. "JJ! Doug! What the hell are you doin'?"_

_ "Grab her, too. She's got a big mouth." He snapped at one of his football friends, Scott._

_ "No!" Emily exclaimed, swinging her arms wildly as she tried to get away from the athlete. "Scott, c'mon! Don't do this!"_

_ "Sorry, Em." Scott shrugged before throwing her into the far back, landing on top of JJ._

_ "JJ, what's going on?" Emily rolled herself off her friend and pulled her to her knees._

_ JJ sniffled. "I'm sorry, Em. I didn't mean for you to get involved. I, I thought it was over…"_

_ "What are you talking about?"_

_ "Doug… he, he raped me last week. He was high. And drunk." She whispered, tears streaming down her face. _

_ "Why didn't you say anything, JJ?" Emily pulled her into her arms. "Has this happened before?"_

_ Hesitating, JJ nodded. "Th-the last three weeks. I wanted to tell you… so bad. I just, I didn't know how. And then he, he apologized. He s-said he didn't mean it. That it, it was the drugs. He w-was done with all of it. I believed him. I really did._

_ Emily hugged the blonde tighter, feeling guilty that she hadn't noticed anything before. "I'm so sorry, JJ…"_

_Feeling the car skid to a stop, JJ instantly tensed up. "I don't, don't know what he's doing though. I mean, this is different. He's worse." She glanced out the window, only seeing an abandoned warehouse. "Run, Em. Please. I can handle this. I've taken it before. Just run. I don't want you to go through this. Get help."_

_ "I'm not leavin' you, JJ. No way."_

_ "Please, Em. This is different. Maybe he, he just wants m-more drugs."_

_Emily didn't have a chance to respond before both of them were yanked from their spots and dragged out of the car._

"So, this wasn't the first time he'd raped you?" The officer asked softly.

JJ sniffled and shook her head. "No, he'd done it… three times before, but, but it was always at his house. I, I knew something was different because we were … in the middle of nowhere. I mean, before, when it happened, it was just him. He did it and that was, was it. This was different."

"Okay, take your time, sweetie."

"They, they dragged us inside this warehouse." JJ swallowed hard, continuing the story.

"_Doug! Let Emily go!" JJ exclaimed, struggling to stay on her feet. "She won't say anything. Just let her go!"_

"_Yeah, right, JJ. You know Emily. She has a big mouth." Doug snarled over his shoulder. "Throw them over there." He gestured to the corner and walked to the other side of the room, towards the lone table in the entire building._

"_Doug! Please!" JJ cried once more._

_Sighing, Doug shook his head angrily and rapidly approached JJ, who was being held by Scott. "You stupid bitch!" He exclaimed, bringing his hand up and slapping her across the face. "Shut your mouth. You make another sound and you're goin' to regret it!"_

_Whimpering, JJ allowed herself to be shoved to the floor next to Emily. "I'm so sorry, Em."_

"_JJ, this isn't your fault. Please stop apologizing." Emily took her hand in hers and squeezed it tightly._

_Before she could respond, Scott had reappeared with a roll of duck tape. "Sorry, girls." He shrugged before taping their wrists together and then to the rusty pipes behind them._

By this point, JJ was shaking on the gurney. Emily had climbed up to sit next to her and pulled her into her arms. "Shh… JJ, it's okay. You're doing fine."

"Jennifer, how about we take a break?" The second officer finally spoke. "Why don't we let Emily talk for a little while?"

JJ sniffled and nodded. "O-o-okay."

"Alright, Emily. Why won't you tell us what happened next?" Lexie placed a hand on her knee. "Take your time."

Emily took a deep breath and nodded. "We sat there for a maybe an hour, while the three guys proceeded to drink and do even more drugs. I, I'm not sure which ones."

"That's fine. We can figure that out."

"They, uh, I think they forgot we were there and then all of a sudden remembered we were there. Doug, he grabbed JJ first."

"_Let's go bitch." He growled, yanking JJ to her feet before re-tapping her wrists to the same pipes, just above their heads._

"_Doug, please…" JJ whimpered again, tears streaming down her face. "Let Emily go."_

"_She opened her mouth. Now she's goin' to pay." He snapped in her face, as he ripped the buttons on her shirt open._

"He, he ripped her shirt off and, and dropped his pants right there. Right next to me." Emily explained. "I, I…"

"It's okay, Emily. Take a deep breath." Lexie tried to comfort her patient.

"He raped me. He raped me right in front of Emily!" JJ exclaimed. "And then his friends did the same. I, I must have passed out, because the next thing I knew, he… Scott, he was on top of Emily. Doug, he punched me in the stomach then and, and I passed out again. Next time I came to, I, we were back in the van, heading back to my house. We came here shortly after."

"Okay, shhh…" The first officer placed a hand on JJ's shoulder. "Have you spoken to a therapist?"

JJ nodded. "We both did. Every other day, for two weeks. Then, we went away, to, to school. I saw a counselor there once, but she didn't help."

"Okay, everyone take a deep breath." The blonde officer stopped the questioning. "You've given us plenty of information to file the charges, if you want?"

Emily and JJ nodded simultaneously. "Yes."

"Was there any physical evidence collected?"

"We, uh, we came in after the last time." JJ replied. "But not before. I didn't tell anyone."

The other officer spoke up again. "That's fine. What we need you girls to do is to meet with a therapist. It can be through the school or not, individual or group, it doesn't matter. As long as you're going, it'll show a jury how bad it actually was. They're more likely to side with you. We'll be able to have the therapist testify for you. I know it sounds bad but it'll be just your word against theirs otherwise."

Both JJ and Emily nodded again.

"There will be an investigation of the crime scene, as well. Do you remember exactly where it was?"

"It was only like 10 minutes from Franklin Street." Emily replied. "I think it was behind the pond. On the side no one goes to? But it was dark, so I, I might be wrong."

"That's fine. It's a start." She nodded. "Unless there's anything else, we're going to head out. We'll be in contact with you in regards to the charges."

"Thank you." JJ nodded and watched the two officers leave the room. Sighing, JJ turned towards the young nurse, scribbling down some notes onto the chart. "Do, do we need to do anything else?"

Lexie looked up from the chart and smiled. "Nope, you guys are all set. There are the numbers of some therapists around here and up towards your school. And you can always come back here to talk to us. We are nurses but some of us have been through similar incidents so we're willing to help you, too."

"Thank you." Emily slid off the gurney and headed towards the door. "Really. Thank you."

Lexie smiled again. "I hope everything works out for you both."

"Me too." JJ whispered as she followed Emily. "Thank you, Lexie."


	12. Chapter 12

AN: Sorry for the long long wait guys. I was seriously struggling with a wicked case of writer's block on this one. This chapter is a bit of a filler; I didn't really wanna go back through the details of what happened again. I'm working on chapter thirteen right now. Let me know what you think and please, let me know what you want to see happen and I'll try to fit it in!

* * *

Chapter Twelve

"Hey." JJ smiled as she pushed opened the door to Derek's dorm room hours after they returned from the hospital.

"Hey." He grinned, looking up from the book he was reading.

Clad in only a pair of pajama shorts and a tank top, she quickly crossed the room and crawled into his bed next to him.

"How are you?" He asked, tossing his textbook onto the floor and looking down at her. "I haven't seen you all day."

JJ nodded, snuggling further into his pillow. "I had a lot to do. I'm sorry."

"Hey." He slid down to lay beside her and face her. "What's up?"

"I need to talk to you." JJ sighed. "I just don't know how."

"Just say what's on your mind, babe." Derek told her, taking her hands in his as best as he could with her cast. He knew this was the big talk she'd been alluding to for a while now. "Take your time."

"It was the end of summer break. We were all out having one last party before we left for college. I was, uh, still dating Doug at the time. I was stupid and thought he'd changed." She started.

"I'm sure you're not stupid, JJ." He whispered.

"But I was." She sniffled, feeling tears start falling down her face. "He hurt me, more than once. I should have ended it after the first time."

"Did he abuse you?" Derek asked as he shifted closer to her.

JJ took a deep breath before continuing. "He raped me. A lot." She told him, finally breaking down and sobbing into his pillow. She felt him pull his hands from hers and automatically thought the worst. Sobbing even harder at the prospect that he wanted nothing to do with her now, she tried to remove herself from his bed. "I'm sorry." She cried. "I'm so sorry."

"JJ. Hey, JJ." He reached for her. "Stop, babe, calm down. Talk to me."

"I'm damaged goods." She admitted.

"Hey." He tried once more to meet her gaze. "You're not damaged goods. You survived and you're moving forward. That's a good thing, JJ. You're a survivor."

"I don't feel like one." She sniffled.

"Shh…" Derek tried to comfort her. He pulled her into his arms and held her tightly.

"We reported it." She told her. "Today. We're p-pressing charges. Should have done it before, when he – they, first did it. B-but I was scared, ashamed… I didn't want my parents to find out. They'd be s-so disappointed."

Not entirely sure what to say, Derek just squeezed her tightly and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I'm sure they wouldn't be disappointed in you, JJ. This wasn't your fault."

"I should've known." She whispered. "Do, do you want to know?"

"Only if you want to tell me, babe." He replied quietly. "You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to."

JJ nodded. "Can, uh, I'm goin' to get Emily and Spence. Th-there are still some…some of it's fuzzy and Emily can… explain." She explained, more to herself than to her boyfriend. "Spence deserves to know, too."

"Okay." Derek nodded. "I'll be here."

Moments later, JJ re-entered the room, Emily and Spencer following close behind. Quickly making themselves as comfortable as possible, a thick silence hung in the air. Once everything was settled, JJ took a deep breath. "Okay…"


	13. Chapter 13

AN: Alright, this one is pretty long. It took a while to get through because I couldn't quite decide how to end it but I managed to do so, while stressing over the Saints/49ers game. My lack of internet is saddening but it also gives me more time to write. I'm not sure when chapter 14 will be up. I don't want to promise anything. I have two stories going right now so I'm going to try writing the next chapter of It Starts With A Birthday before I continue this one.

Anyway, please review. I'd love to know what you think. Also, if you have any ideas, let me know! I haven't decided where this story is actually going so any ideas are greatly appreciated!

* * *

Chapter Thirteen

It had been just over a week since the girls had made the trip to the hospital and midterms were in full swing. In fact, JJ's nose was buried so deep into her Calculus book that she never heard Derek and Emily walk into the room and nearly fell off of her bed when they shut the door behind them.

"Damnit, Em!" The blonde exclaimed. "A little warning next time?"

"Sorry, Jay. We weren't exactly quiet coming in. Thought you heard us." Emily shrugged. "Are you studying again?"

"Yeah, this Calc midterm is going to kill me." She replied, glancing up from her notebook to see her boyfriend standing beside her best friend. "What are you doin' here? Not that I'm not glad to see you."

"We finished our midterm at the same time. Some of us can't beast an English midterm like you." Emily told her, tossing her backpack onto her bed before climbing underneath the light blue comforter. "Seriously though, how did you manage to finish it that fast? I was barely done with the first essay and you had all three done."

"I don't know." JJ shrugged, closing her book so Derek could take a seat on her bed. "Quality, not quantity? I didn't write that much."

"God… I thought I was never going to finish. I felt like my answers never answered the question fully." Derek complained. "Thank goodness I don't have any more exams. I'm exhausted."

"Lucky you." JJ replied dryly.

"Hey, I'm sure you'll ace yours. You had Spencer help you with the last chapter, didn't you? You had no other problems with the rest of the material." He pointed out. "Stop over-thinking everything."

"I need the distraction." She shrugged. "I'm trying to not think about the trial. It's in a couple days."

"Jay, you gotta take a break. You've been going nonstop since Halloween. You're going to burn yourself out. Why don't you take a break and sleep for a while? A short nap won't kill you." Her boyfriend suggested, glancing over at Emily who was snoring softly, buried under her comforter. "C'mon, we can go to my room and rest. Spencer is going to be gone all afternoon."

Glancing down at her textbook once more, JJ sighed and nodded. "I could use some sleep." She said, climbing off the bed. After quickly changing into a pair of comfortable sweatpants, she turned back to her boyfriend, finding him staring in her direction. "Derek?" She frowned when he didn't respond at first and called his name again. "You in there?"

"Huh? What?" He shook his head and met her eyes. "Sorry, I just…" He smirked. "Sorry."

JJ chuckled and shook her head. "Get your mind out of the gutter, boy." She stretched her hand out in his direction and waited for him to join her, standing up on her toes to place a kiss on his cheek. "At least wait 'til you're in your own room." She whispered into his ear before pulling back and crossing the hallway.

Hours later, JJ woke up a start, confused as to what had happened. Lifting herself up onto her elbows, she glanced down at her boyfriend who was snoring quietly. One look at Derek's alarm clock told her that they had been sleeping for at least two hours. Sitting up the rest of the way, JJ rubbed her eyes with the backs of her hands before poking Derek in the chest.

"Derek." She said quietly and poked him again when he didn't move. Frowning, the blonde poked him a third time and said his name slightly louder this time. "Derek. C'mon, I'm hungry." Still, she got no response though.

After a few seconds of silence, JJ smirked to herself. Leaning over her sleeping boyfriend, she quickly straddled his waist before lowering her lips to his. It didn't take much more than that for Derek to wake up.

"Mmm… JJ…" He moaned, kissing her back.

"Good. You're awake." JJ smiled and pulled back, straightening up so she was sitting on his lower abdomen.

"Hey!" Derek pouted when she pulled away. "What'cha stop for? I was enjoying that."

"You wouldn't wake up." She shrugged, smiling down at him. She could feel just how much he was enjoying it and praised herself internally.

"Well, I'm awake now and I think you're a little too far away for my liking." He told her, grabbing her waist and pulling her back down towards him. He smirked when he heard her gasp in surprise and had to throw her right hand down to catch herself since her left was still in a cast.

"Derek." She whispered, millimeters away from him now.

"Yes?" He smiled, glancing down at her lips before bringing his eyes up to meet hers.

JJ didn't respond, instead closed the gap between the two of them and kissed him deeply. Feeling him respond to the kiss, she allowed him to roll them over gently so she didn't have to worry about her still-healing arm. Taking advantage of their new position, JJ very quickly slid her hands under Derek's black t-shirt and pulled it up to his chest, running her hands over the newly exposed skin.

Pulling back to take breath, Derek stared down at the blonde who was smiling shyly up at him. "Is your arm okay?"

Biting her bottom lip, JJ nodded and without warning, yanked the t-shirt over Derek's head and tossed it to the ground. "It's fine. Now, get back down here."

Without a second thought, Derek compiled with her demands and kissed her deeply, before moving to kiss her neck, causing her to jump before relaxing and letting him continue. Sighing happily, JJ ran her hands up and down his back before grabbing his hips to pull him even further down. Running her fingers along the waistband of his sweatpants, JJ pulled the drawstring causing the already loose pants to loosen even more. It was at that moment that Derek found _that_ spot right below her ear, causing her to shudder and distract her from her current mission.

"Oh God… Derek…" JJ sighed, unable to focus on anything but what he was currently doing.

Derek chuckled to himself, obviously pleased with what he was doing. Leaning his weight on one arm, he used his right hand to slide underneath her white t-shirt, teasing the skin just above her waistline. Dipping his fingers beneath the edge of her yoga pants, Derek pressed his lips to hers.

Not one to give in so easily, JJ shoved at the waistband to Derek's sweatpants and used her feet to push them down even further. When she lifted her hips to meet his though, she felt Derek pulled back from the kiss, resting his forehead on hers.

"JJ…" He sighed. "We gotta stop… I'm not…"

"Derek, shut up and kiss me." She shook her head and pulled him back to her. Not even a minute later, she found herself groaning when he pulled back. "Derek…"

"I'm not kiddin', Jay. We can't -."

"Derek. Stop thinking and just do. I want this, I want us." She told him sternly, staring him straight in the eye.

"You're sure?" He asked, clearly unsure about her demands. "Completely positive?"

"Yes, Derek. I've never been more sure of anything. I want you."

And with that, Derek captured her lips once more.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

"Derek…" JJ whispered, just over an hour later. Holding the dark blue sheet to her chest, she glanced up at her boyfriend.

"Mmm?" He cracked open one eye to peer down at her. "What's up?"

"Um…" She bit her bottom lip, not wanting to ruin the moment. "I'm… I'm starving."

Derek laughed and shook his head. "Doesn't surprise me." He pressed his lips to the top of her head. "C'mon, let's go get some food. Spence isn't goin' to be back for another couple hours. Why don't you see if Em is hungry, too? It is dinnertime."

JJ nodded and sat up on the bed, still clutching the sheet to her chest and glanced around the room for her clothes.

"Here." Derek smiled, having already pulled her boxers back on, and handed her her deep red bra before continuing the search.

"Hey, Em?" JJ stuck her head in the door to her dorm room. "You awake?"

"No." Emily grumbled back but then sighed and sat up to face her friend. "Yeah. Not willingly though. What's up?" She hopped off her bed and strolled over to the closet to search through her clothes.

"Derek and I are going to get something to eat. Did you want to come?" She asked, stepping into the room and closing the door behind her.

"Yeah, I should probably eat. You feelin' any better about your exam?" The brunette asked as she pulled on a pair of black yoga pants.

"I slept with Derek." JJ said, before slapping her hands over her mouth, eyes wide at her blunt confession.

"Not the response I was looking for but _what?_" Emily practically squealed the last part of her sentence.

"I… I slept with Derek." JJ repeated quietly, sitting on the edge of her bed, watching her friend pull her hair back into a messy ponytail.

"Just now? Was it your idea? Are you okay with it? Please tell me he's fantastic in bed." She rambled, sliding a pair of black Uggs onto her feet before taking a seat next to JJ.

"Yes, yes, yes and oh my goodness, yes." JJ replied, smiling at her friend's face. "He was more than fantastic. I don't even know how to describe it."

"Ugh. Jealous." Emily sighed. "Spence doesn't wanna rush things. Not that it's a bad idea, but ya know, I'm gettin' a little antsy here."

"It's totally worth the wait, Em." She smirked. "Honestly. I mean, I know I only slept with Doug and Mason, but this was different and I can't help but wonder if it was because we waited. I didn't wait more than a couple weeks before sleeping with either of them." She shrugged, gathering her hair in her hands and pulling it up into a messy ponytail. "I don't know, maybe I'm crazy."

Emily shook her head. "Nah, I can see what you're getting at. None of the guys that I've slept with have been particularly… memorable, except Evan and that's because he was my first and we did wait."

"Does that seem weird to you? That I lost my virginity before you?" JJ asked suddenly. "You waited six months before sleeping with Evan. I only waited… what? Three weeks with Mason."

"Sort of. But it's not something that I've really thought about since we were fifteen." The brunette shrugged. "I'm sure there's a psychological explanation behind all of it. All I know is that I was so jealous of you when you slept with Mason because I couldn't even maintain a steady boyfriend."

"Really?" JJ asked, genuinely surprised at her friends' confession. "You never told me that."

"Yeah, it's not something I'm proud of. Then again, I was pretty jealous of you most of the time." Emily admitted. "I think that's one of the reasons I started acting out. Maybe. I'm not sure. I just know that you seemed to have this great life, great family, friends… and my parents barely wanted anything to do with me."

JJ sighed. "The grass isn't always greener on the other side. After Annie… let's just say, my family life was a lot less perfect than I led everyone to believe. I mean, you know how shitty it was after…" She trailed off, not willing to discuss her older sister at the moment.

"I know, Jay. I remember that… but regardless of everything, your parents still cared about you and were there for you… most of the time. My parents didn't give a rat's ass what I did. That's why I spent so much time with you." Emily blinked rapidly, fighting back the tears that were appearing in her eyes. "Let's go eat. I don't wanna talk about this anymore."

"Amen to that." JJ nodded and climbed to her feet before pulling her friend into a tight embrace. "I love you, Em. You know that, right?"

Emily sniffled and nodded. "I know. I love you, too, Jay."


End file.
